The Business Of Baseball

#30 Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates are owned by Robert Nutting, who bought them in 1996 for $92 mil.

Current Manager John Russell

2009 Wins-to-player cost ratio8 113

The skinnyPNC Park is considered by many to be the best stadium in the league. But when your product is consistently terrible your stadium cannot help your bottom line. Coming off a season in which they cut payroll and lost 99 games, the Pirates did not raise season ticket prices in 2010 for the eighth consecutive season. The Pirates drew just 1,577,853 fans last season, a 2% decline from 2008 and the lowest gate at PNC Park since it opened in 2001. Value deals for fans have not helped much. Last year the Bucs offered $12 tickets for some games and gave 10 games to fans who bought some 8-game packages. The Pirates trimmed their 2009 payroll during the season despite reaping more than $35 million from the league's revenue sharing system. Team president Frank Coonelly said the Pirates are spending all of its revenue-sharing proceeds after being publicly ripped in the press by Red Sox owner John Henry for not using the money to improve their team.

Sport: Portion of franchise's value attributable to revenue shared among all teams.
Market: Portion of franchise's value attributable to its city and market size.
Stadium: Portion of franchise's value attributable to its stadium.
Brand Management: Portion of franchise's value attributable to the management of its brand.
Revenues and operating income are for 2009 season and include revenue sharing.
NA: Not applicable.Team Logos Courtesy MLB.

1Value of team based on current stadium deal (unless new stadium is pending) without deduction for debt (other than stadium debt).
2Current team value compared with latest transaction price.
3Includes stadium debt.
4Net of stadium revenues used for debt payments.
5Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
6Includes benefits and bonuses.
7Includes club seats.
8Compares the number of wins per player payroll relative to the rest of the MLB. Postseason wins count twice as much as regular season wins. A score of 120 means that the team achieved 20% more victories per dollar of payroll compared with the league average. Photos: Joe Robbins/Getty Images;Christian Petersen/Getty Images;Scott Boehm/Getty Images